On October 11, the court had convicted Rampal and his 26 followers in two separate cases of murder and other offences.
A court in Haryana's Hisar on Wednesday sentenced self-styled godman Rampal to life imprisonment in connection with a murder case. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with another case on Tuesday.
On October 11, the court had convicted Rampal and his 26 followers in two separate cases of murder and other offences, including wrongful confinement of his victims at his hermitage.
The court pronounced the verdict after a nearly four-year-long trial of the 27 accused in a makeshift court inside the district jail, where Rampal (67) and his followers have been lodged since their arrest in November 2014.
The two cases against Rampal and his followers were lodged at Barwala police station on November 19, 2014. The first case was lodged on the complaint of one Shivpal of Mithapur near Badarpur in Delhi in which Rampal and 14 of his followers were sentenced to life imprisonment by Hisar Additional District and Sessions Judge DR Chaliya.
The second one (FIR 430/2014) was lodged by Suresh of Jakhora village of Lalitpur district in Uttar Pradesh for which the quantum of sentence was pronounced today.
Both the complainants had alleged that their respective wives' were held captive inside Rampal's ashram and later killed.
Besides the murder charges, the Barwala police had also invoked the offence of wrongful confinement, among others, in the two FIRs.
In November 2014, as the police proceeded to arrest Rampal holed up inside his ashram, his followers and devotees, numbering over 15,000, surrounded the sprawling 12 acre hermitage to prevent the godman's arrest.
Six persons including five women and an infant were killed in the ensuing violence.
Elaborate security arrangements were made by Hisar district administration ahead of the pronouncement of sentence.
Section 144 of the CrPC, prohibiting gathering of more than four persons, has already been imposed by the district magistrate, effective till October 17.
(With PTI inputs)
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 "File photo of self-styled godman Rampal")
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